Gargling gravel. Attempting to digest a chainsaw. Enjoying a barbed-wire-wrapped laryngoscope. A demon from the eighth circle of hell having its fingernails ripped out.

These are some of the very normal ways that certain singers will have their voices described. We’re not talking about the Bocellis of the world here. I’m talking Abbath, Gaahl, Quorthon, and a whole bunch of other scraggly-haired Nordic dudes with nicknames out of a D&D campaign; vocalists working on the heaviest extremes of rock music, like death metal, black metal, powerviolence, and worse. These are the bandleaders, like Alissa WhiteGluz, formerly of Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, who squeal, shriek, grunt, growl, and groan over the gnarliest riffs you can imagine.

Listening to them perform, it’s easy to believe that singers working in these genres are on some demonic-possession-type shit or else simply have a little Doom-style wraith stuffed in their trachea. The reality is way less cool: Every single one of them is using the same vocal equipment that we all have.